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California power sector emissions fall almost 8% YoY in 2024
A deadly bird flu strain is headed for Australia – and First Nations people have the know-how to tackle it
Australian nature: if our laws don’t radically change, environmental degradation will continue | Adam Morton
This country has a long history of taking its unique wildlife and landscapes for granted – but what has happened in this term of parliament is remarkable
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There is something significant missing from most of the political and media discussion about the Australian government’s promised, and now abandoned, nature protection laws: the environment. Logically, it should be a focus of the debate. In practice, it barely gets a look-in.
This would be an extraordinary state of affairs were it not so familiar. Australia has a long history of taking its unique wildlife and landscapes for granted, stretching back to European colonisation. But what has happened in this term of parliament is a pretty remarkable extension of that.
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Continue reading...VCM Report: Credits from African soil carbon project hang in balance to further knock market confidence
LATAM Roundup: Ecuador, Peru boost access to international markets
Denmark moves to compensate CO2 tax burden on fisheries until 2030
UN monitors asteroid with a tiny chance of hitting Earth
Trump has brought much-needed attention to a site of great tragedy: the Gulf of Mexico | Greg Grandin
Environmental disasters have plagued the water body for decades. Now the region is thrust in the global spotlight
The enormous semi-enclosed bay, its waters flanked by the Florida and Yucatán peninsulas and partially blockaded by Cuba, has been called the Golfo de México for centuries, a name that first appeared on a world map in 1550. And for centuries the name bothered no one.
Thomas Jefferson used the name without shame, even as he, Donald Trump-like, imagined dominating nearby nations. If the US could take Cuba, Jefferson wrote in 1823, it would control the “Gulf of Mexico and the countries and isthmus bordering on it”. Country music stars, no less than founding fathers, liked the romance of the place. Tracy Lawrence dreams of a Gulf of Mexico filled with whiskey. Johnny Cash wanted to dump his blues down in the Gulf.
Continue reading...Greenland ice sheet cracking more rapidly than ever, study shows
Crevasses increasing in size and depth in response to climate breakdown, Durham University researchers find
The Greenland ice sheet – the second largest body of ice in the world – is cracking more rapidly than ever before as a response to climate breakdown, a study has found.
Researchers used 8,000 three-dimensional surface maps from high-resolution commercial satellite imagery to assess the evolution of cracks in the surface of the ice sheet between 2016 and 2021.
Continue reading...Levels of microplastics in human brains may be rapidly rising, study suggests
Research looking at tissue from postmortems between 1997 and 2024 finds upward trend in contamination
The exponential rise in microplastic pollution over the past 50 years may be reflected in increasing contamination in human brains, according to a new study.
It found a rising trend in micro- and nanoplastics in brain tissue from dozens of postmortems carried out between 1997 and 2024. The researchers also found the tiny particles in liver and kidney samples.
Continue reading...Senior carbon trader leaves Trafigura
Austria needs 5-7 mln tonnes of carbon removals per year to reach net zero, official says
85% of asset owners take steps to integrate biodiversity into sustainability strategies -report
Thailand’s voluntary carbon market sees jump in prices, modest volumes
UN-backed forest monitoring platform launches blue carbon reporting module
EU, China launch biodiversity monitoring initiative
A manatee: Imagine eating lettuce under water | Helen Sullivan
Manatees don’t have incisors or canines, only ‘cheek teeth’. No hair, only whiskers. Algae growing on their backs. Everything is gentle
A manatee looks like every animal I have ever tried to make with play-dough: roll a big piece into a sausage, flatten a bit on either side with your forefingers, and a bit at the end with your thumb. Hey presto. A manatee also happens to be the grey of all Play-Dough colours mixed together.
Imagine eating lettuce underwater: the crunch, the squelch. Reading about manatees, I finally give in and look up what the word “prehensile” actually means, as in a giraffe’s prehensile tongue, a monkey’s prehensile tail, a manatee’s prehensile lips. What could these things have in common, you wonder, for 25 years. Then it is time to find out.
Continue reading...Peru names two voluntary carbon standards to national registry
Why are gen Zs deserting garden centres? Maybe they’re more into planting than shopping | Claire Ratinon
They can be joyful and important social spaces, but a new generation of customers runs a mile from the shelves of plastic and chemicals
When I first heard that garden centres are facing a wave of closures, I immediately thought of the one around the corner from where I live. On a recent Wednesday afternoon, the car park was full and the cafe was bustling with people my parents’ age and older, chatting over milky coffees and slices of cake. The retired ladies who talk to me in the gym changing room love to come here for a jacket potato after their aquafit class.
Yet, as I stepped through the automatic doors, the plants weren’t immediately visible. First, I had to pass a bright deli counter, an area filled with homeware and crockery, shelves of fragrant toiletries, and a section of children’s toys before anything remotely connected to gardening came into view. I waded through gloves, power tools, pesticides and outdoor furniture, and then, finally, I found the annual bedding plants and potted shrubs. Here, all was quiet. The gardening section was quite unlike the busy cafe; I was alone but for one member of staff.
Claire Ratinon is an organic food grower and writer
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